Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a grinding wheel used when a plate-shaped work piece is ground.
Description of the Related Art
In recent years, it has been required to process a wafer composed of a material such as silicon into a thin shape in order to realize size reduction and weight reduction of device chips. The wafer is thinned by grinding its back surface side after devices such as ICs and LSIs are formed in the respective regions marked out by planned dividing lines (streets) on the front surface for example.
When a plate-shaped work piece typified by a wafer is ground, grinding apparatus including a chuck table that holds the wafer and a grinding wheel that is disposed above the chuck table and has a lower surface to which abrasive stones containing abrasive grains are fixed is used for example (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-288881 for example). After the work piece is held on the chuck table, while this chuck table and the grinding wheel are each rotated, the grinding wheel is lowered and the abrasive stones are pressed against the work piece, which can grind the work piece.